The Daily: Tether CEO blasts cloud security after massive password leak, Kraken launches bitcoin ‘staking,’ and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.It's Friday! Bitcoin's network activity is looking like a ghost town as institutional participation shifts more transactions off-chain. Still, rising settlement volumes and larger average transaction sizes suggest whales are increasingly dominating the base layer, according to Glassnode.In today's newsletter, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino teases an open-source local password manager, Kraken launches a bitcoin "staking" service, David Bailey's Nakamoto raises its bitcoin treasury target to $763 million, and more.Meanwhile, Reddit is reportedly in talks to use the Sam Altman-backed crypto project World's eyeball-scanning Orbs for human verification.Let's get started.Tether CEO says it's 'time to ditch the cloud' amid massive online data leakTether CEO Paolo Ardoino said it's time to move beyond storing passwords in the cloud after 16 billion credentials from Apple, Facebook, Google, government services, and other platforms were leaked in what is believed to be the largest data breach ever.Online security experts described the leak as a "blueprint for mass exploitation," warning that bad actors could use the data to launch hacks or phishing attacks, including against crypto users."The cloud has failed us. Again," Ardoino posted to X on Thursday. "16 billion passwords just leaked. It's time to ditch the cloud." Ardoino stated that such cloud-based vulnerabilities are why Tether has been developing PearPass — a fully local, open-source password manager that stores all data on users' devices."No cloud. No servers. No leaks. Ever," he wrote, adding that PearPass will launch soon.The stablecoin firm previously launched Pear Credit, a peer-to-peer lending platform, in collaboration with Holepunch and Synonym and is also developing Tether AI, an open-source, offline-capable AI runtime.Ardoino said his mission is to build "human-first" technology that can operate locally and function in disaster scenarios like World War III.Kraken launches a bitcoin 'staking' serviceCrypto exchange Kraken has launched bitcoin "staking" with up to 1% yield via DeFi protocol Babylon, enabling users to earn passive rewards on their BTC holdings without wrapping, bridging, or lending.While Babylon is marketed as a "bitcoin-native staking protocol," it does not enable staking in the way traditional proof-of-stake systems do.Instead, Babylon lets users bond their BTC via time-lock scripts on Bitcoin's base layer to help secure PoS chains in exchange for rewards.Even though Babylon avoids wrapped BTC and Kraken provides a more user-friendly interface, participants still face lockup immobility, offchain coordination risks, reward token volatility, and centralized custodial exposure.David Bailey's Nakamoto raises bitcoin treasury target to $763 millionBitcoin holding firm Nakamoto and telehealth startup KindlyMD have raised their BTC treasury target to $763 million following an additional $51.5 million in private placement commitments.Founder David Bailey said the latest round of capital was raised in 72 hours, with plans to convert the entire sum into bitcoin post-merger approval.The firms originally outlined a $710 million raise in May — $510 million through PIPE funding and $200 million via convertible notes."We continue to execute our strategy to raise as much capital as possible to acquire as much bitcoin as possible," Bailey, who also runs Bitcoin Magazine, added.The deal follows a growing trend of firms mimicking Strategy's playbook to build bitcoin treasuries via debt and equity raises.France hit by 10th crypto 'wrench attack' of 2025A 23-year-old crypto investor was kidnapped near Paris on Tuesday, marking France's 10th known "wrench attack" and the 32nd globally in 2025, according to Le Parisien and data tracked by Jameson Lopp.Attackers forced the victim to call his partner to hand over a Ledger hardware wallet and €5,000 in cash before releasing him in a nearby town.This year is on pace to become the most violent on record for crypto holders, with wrench attacks rising alongside market gains; the previous peak was 36 known incidents in 2021.French officials are ramping up discussions with the crypto industry after a series of high-profile assaults, including the kidnapping and torture of Ledger co-founder David Balland and his wife in January.TikTok slams Rep. Sherman over $300 million Trump memecoin accusationTikTok slammed Rep. Brad Sherman's claim that its owners bought $300 million in TRUMP memecoins, calling it "patently false and irresponsible."Sherman accused TikTok of effectively bribing President Trump to delay its looming U.S. ban, but the congressman appeared to have confused the deal with a separate company, GD Culture Group.GDC, a small-cap firm with no official ties to TikTok's parent company ByteDance but heavily reliant on the platform for content production, announced plans to buy TRUMP last month as part of its crypto treasury strategy — seemingly sparking the confusion.Over the next 7 daysU.S. jobless claims figures are out on Thursday. U.S. PCE data follows on Friday.Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is scheduled to speak on Tuesday and Thursday. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak on Tuesday and Wednesday.BTC Prague concludes in the Czech Republic.EigenLayer, IOTA, and Moca Network are among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.Disclaimer: This article was produced with the assistance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5/4 and reviewed and edited by our editorial team.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.